ENGL 484 A: Advanced Prose Workshop

Winter 2026
Meeting:
MW 3:30pm - 4:50pm
SLN:
14409
Section Type:
Lecture
CREATIVE WRITING MAJORS ONLY; ALL OTHERS WILL BE DROPPED. PLUS 2 HRS; NO AUDITORS ADD CODE FROM INSTRUCTOR PD 3
Syllabus Description (from Canvas):

English 484A/Advanced Prose
Winter Quarter 2026 

dshields@davidshields.com; www.davidshields.com

In-person; Mondays + Wednesdays from 3:30-4:50 in ART building, Room 006

 

OFFICE HOURS: Fridays 2-4p.m. in Padelford A414

& by appointment; set up via email or by texting me. 

We can talk by phone or via Zoom.

 

Course Description: In class, students will read aloud their work and critique one another’s work. That is the crux of the course. This is not a course in fiction or nonfiction. This is a course in composition. In how to write an effective work of medium-length prose. You can write whatever you want: prose-poem, essay, fiction, hybrid work. You can also write a series of interlinked assignments.

 

Grading: 

10%: Brainstorming

10%: Outline

10%: First pages

10%: Rough Draft 

40%: Final Portfolio 

20%: Participation 

 

Participation counts; it will affect your grade. However, please don’t comment just to comment. Try to contribute judiciously, effectively, thoughtfully, and generously.

 

Course Texts: Life Is Short/Art Is Shorter: In Praise of Brevity (David Shields & Elizabeth Cooperman, authors/editors) available as a PDF via Canvas; the book is available as a paperback at UBS or via bookstores online, if you’d like to have a physical copy.

 

Class Schedule: 

Mon, Jan 5: First day of class. An introduction to the course: what will we focus on? Not the very brief essay or story or prose-poem (1-2pp), as I do in 284, and not the medium-length story or essay or prose-poem (4-7pp), as I do in 384, but instead the “long” essay or story or prose-poem (10-15 pp). You’ll brainstorm and outline and draft and write and rewrite the same work throughout the quarter.

Wed, Jan  7: Discuss Tim Parks’s “Adultery.” Brainstorm together in class.

Mon, Jan 12: Discuss Leonard Michaels’s “In the Fifties.” Brainstorm together in class.

Wed, Jan 14: Discuss Amy Hempel’s “In the Cemetery.” Brainstorm together in class.

Mon, Jan 19th: Martin Luther King Junior Day. No class. 

Wed, Jan 21: Discuss JS Foer’s “Primer.” Present outline.

Mon, Jan 26: Discuss Rick Moody’s “Primary Sources.” Present outline.

Wed, Jan 28: Discuss Lauren Slater’s “One Nation, Under the Weather.” Present outline.

Mon, Feb 2: Very first pages due and discussed.

Wed, Feb 4: Very first pages due and discussed.

Mon, Feb 9:  Very first pages due and discussed.

Wed, Feb 11: First assignment due and discussed.

Mon, Feb 16: Presidents’ Day. No class.

Wed, Feb 18: Very first pages due and discussed.

Mon, Feb 23:  Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.

Wed, Feb 25: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.

Mon, March 2: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.

Wed, March 4: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.

Mon, March 9: Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.

Wed, March 11: Final class. Rough draft of entire work due and discussed.

Thursday, March 19, 5 pm: Portfolio due: final version due of long essay or story or prose-poem.

 

Catalog Description:
Intensive prose workshop. Emphasis on the production and discussion of student fiction and/or creative nonfiction. Prerequisite: ENGL 383; ENGL 384.
GE Requirements Met:
Arts and Humanities (A&H)
Credits:
5.0
Status:
Active
Last updated:
October 31, 2025 - 1:39 pm